Never The Same
by Katylar
Summary: A long oneshot about a life freely lived. Zimcentric, with Dib, Gaz and Gir. Hints of tragic ZAGR and ZADF. Angsty and maybe dark. Please Read And Review!


**Notes**: Well, this will probably be my one and only Invader Zim fic, although I've been around this fandom for a while… before it sort of died… but either way, hope you guys like it… it tries to tackle something I think most writers forget. If you've read some of my work before, and find some recurring themes or imagery, please excuse my lack of imagination, also I'll be using a line that I used in one of my other fics (I don't think I was able to use it to its maximum potential)… I've used a few techniques that I've picked up from _Raina1_, a really good writer on this community. As a tribute, the jungle gym scenes are dedicated and credited to her. This is going to be medium-length, so please enjoy… one-shot. Thanks.

**Another thing.** I started and was around halfway through with this before I read the story Here Comes The Sun by _Betryal_- a piece that has striking similarities to this one. It was never my intention to write something that is nothing more than a rehash, and since I have a different enough angle, I decided to give it the go ahead. I highly recommend you read the above mentioned story as well. It is a beautiful fic.

This story may have some similarities, but it also has some notable deviations as well, so please read on and keep an open mind… and let's hope no one says the word Plagiarism. Coincidental stuff does happen.

Finally, if anyone is new to the fandom or if you get confused in any part of this story for any reason, you might find some answers in an appendix I'm putting at the end.

Warning: Gratuitous angst ahead. Also, this may turn out to be pretty dark, so please leave a review if you think I set the rating too low.

Disclaimer: I own nicklelodeon. Bow down to me. And give me oreos.

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* * *

Never The Same

"_You'll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon- and for the rest of your life."_

_-Casablanca

* * *

_

Rain.

He tried his best to suppress a shiver as he watched the tiny vindictive drops beyond his house. Pelting hapless trees and dogs with their watery remains, glistening bits of heaven losing their place from up above and making soft pitter-patter deaths all around.

On the barely dry threshold of his home, the former Irken Invader named Zim felt, battled, and gave in as his imagination turned down a more morose and morbid alley. Macabre images of his normally emerald green skin turning umber black like shadows in the night. Bones slowly powdering to chalk-white powder as they are left unprotected by melting strips of flesh and muscle. Internal organs trying desperately in vain to function as cold shards of sky puncture and tear. Around that time, he would be coughing up his own rich purple blood, his eyes- broken, like stained glass and gossamer threads of pain scattering the dull red.

His fingertips caressed the insides of his gloves, the smooth black material giving comfort as memories long endured assaulted his mind once more with a vehemence no amount of rain could ever muster.

He was so very old.

Images of times lost and loved blurred together like so many droplets of water. His world, his friends- the ideals he had once fought for so dearly and now disregard and see only through the veil of regret.

Sometimes, he really wished he could forget.

Praying to a god he had never met and wished beyond all else to believe in, he allowed the memories to flood his mind.

Outside, the sky kept crying.

* * *

"What's it like, worm-baby?" 

Squinted eyes calmly focused down on him, eyebrows rising sardonically.

"What are you talking about, Zim?" A grating voice, vocal chords sticky from hours of disuse- neither could really remember the last time either of them participated in a conversation.

He fidgeted, vision blurring as it traveled from the inquiring girl in front of him, the jungle gym behind her, the darkening sky above them, and back again.

He really couldn't recall why he had even asked her such an inane question- just another confused thought in his chaotic mind. He raised hidden eyes up to hers, incredulity marring their expressions, both.

"Well?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to see what reaction I would be able to induce in a-" A bolt of lightning arced in the sky.

"Zim, if you don't explain yourself now, I will make your life so bad you'd wish you were asleep dreaming about meats or whatever."

An audible gulp punctuated the moment.

Gaz Membrane left a sound that was halfway between a growl and a sigh, skull necklace glinting in the over-cast sky. She turned and started towards the exit.

"Wait."

"What now, Zim? I _swear_, if you're just being annoy-"

"I asked…"

"What?"

"What's it like? Being free?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

A drop fell. Then another.

As she walked away from the play ground, the rain glistened.

* * *

He sat there, alone in his chair watching the static that was the only remnant of his old life. A collection of black and white dots permeating the screen- which only moments before displayed the images of the Tallest of the Irken- stagnating like some digital corpse. 

He still couldn't believe it. His mission had been a lie.

Everything had been a lie.

Every single damning word came back to haunt him as he kept staring at the monitor. The conference with his superiors had been brief, succinct, and brutal.

He had served his homeworld with a zeal that had bordered on fanatical. A life fully lived never for himself.

Always scheming, always killing; always obeying orders. All for the good of the Empire.

The Empire that had not wanted anything to do with him all along- the one that had sent him on a suicide mission in the middle of nowhere, so he may never be heard from again.

A few floors above, his Standard Issue Robotic Unit, Gir, made undecipherable noise as he jovially made his way around the fake home.

Just like his life. A lie.

The static was comforting.

* * *

"What do you want, Zim?" 

"Nothing, pitiful stink-beast."

"Then why are you sitting at my table?"

"So that I may better observe your pathetically backward _feeding_ rituals."

"Cut the bull, alien. What the hell are you doing here?"

"Nothing."

"Really? I somehow doubt that."

"I don't care for your _doubts_. I don't care for anything anymore-"

"Ah, now I know. You're sitting here with me because you don't know what else to do, right? Well, how does it feel, Zim? Knowing that you're a joke? That you're whole life has been a sham?"

"I'm _warning_ you, Dib-human…"

"I'm not afraid of you. How does it feel, Zim?"

"Cease your irritating inquiry-"

"How does it feel, that in the end, you're just like me?"

"No! I will _never_ be like you! You are primitive and mindless. A collection of odorous animals who live their lives without meaning or purpose. A pathetic race of-"

"Exactly. Just like me."

"No."

"Yeah, I guess not. We're not drones- we don't kill and destroy whole civilizations because someone taller than me said so. We'll never be the same. Because you, Zim, are scum."

"No."

"_Scum_."

* * *

He watched her, sometimes. 

Like today.

Watched her while she sat alone, apart from the rest of her species- always glaring at either the small device that made electronically simulated pig noises or her surroundings.

She was far more fascinating than the others.

A beep from her GameSlave that one could mistake for an automobile crash pierced the constant clamor of stupid children at play. A soft ruffling sound of cloth and whatnot marked her movement.

She looked right at him, then. Glared as hardly at him as she did at her videogame.

It was amusing. She was the sibling of the only person he had ever learned to call a friend. Ever since that day when his whole world came crashing down, life had never been the same. But she still regarded him like he was an enemy.

Then again, she regarded everyone as such.

Fascinating, indeed.

Her eyes never left his.

He shook his head and hid back under the jungle gym.

* * *

"Maybe one day you'll understand it. But I seriously doubt you ever will." 

"Nonsense! I am the almighty Zim. I will learn this aspect of Terran life just like everything else."

"Maybe. But this is something that even most of us- humans, I mean- can't understand."

"I do not believe you, Dib-human. Why would your society place so much observable importance in something that you as a people do not universally understand?"

"You'd be surprised. We do that to a lot of things."

"Not understand them?"

"Well, yes. But also, we place importance in stuff we can't really explain."

"That's just stupid."

"And the strangest thing about it is- the things we find to be the most important are also the ones nobody can really comprehend."

"Moronic. But more importantly, how could this be about the mode of dress? How can this… _fashion_ be so insanely illogical?"

"Who knows?"

* * *

"Zim, can I try something?" Eyes losing their squint. 

"What, Gaz-human?" His wig twitching.

"Just close your eyes for a minute." Slight upward turn on one side of her lips.

"What would you do, then, Dib-sister?" Hidden ruby eyes widening.

"Just trust me, okay?" Palms- which were surprisingly empty of a video game- opening.

"All right- What did you just do, human?" Sputtering and shock.

"Nothing. I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about." Eyes staring past him.

"But what exactly did you do? Would it cause me harm?" Panicked arms flailing.

"Just trust me. You'll find out sooner or later, anyway." A genuine smile.

"Find out what?" Curiosity piquing.

"Never mind, Zim. And oh, by the way-" Turning, stepping away.

"What?" Fingers experimenting where her lips had touched him.

"It's Gaz. Just Gaz. All the other suffixes? They're annoying." The sky shined.

* * *

He looked at his robotic companion as he zipped from place to place in the rarely-used kitchen of his house. 

It was almost relaxing. Eyes following the jerky movements.

Normality heaven.

If a short green Irken watching his military-issue robot as it cooked burgers in an astonishingly still-operational toaster clad in a sickly yellow green dog costume with its head poking out and blue eyes glowing manically could ever be considered normal.

Maybe somewhere, out there.

A shrill torrent of marginally understandable gibberish drew his attention to his pet dog's problem.

In the past, whenever Gir encountered an obstacle within the course of its trivially borderline-insane pursuits, Zim would have just walked away and laughed sadistically.

His mind quickly deduced that the reason for the robot's distress was not mechanical, chemical or electrical in nature.

Zim calmly took the cord and plugged the toaster in. It started humming a disturbingly domestic sound.

The smell of toasting burgers filled his home.

* * *

She glanced up at him, gaze older than her fourteen years, as she unceremoniously moved aside to give him a seat on her ledge. 

The jungle gym. Again.

Somewhere else, couples fell in love- promised undying devotions and bright conjugal futures.

But here, an exile reached out to a friend.

"Your father?"

A nod, imperceptibly graceful. Small puffs of dead air frosting in front of her, masking her features.

"Want to talk about it?"

The pregnant silence hung in the cool evening. He tried to avoid the infant fogs emanating from her mouth, ever wary of deadly water. Strangely enough, the floating microscopic bits of pain looked beautiful.

"I have a really bad father. My brother is obsessive about everything. The paranormal, you, everybody's approval, just about everything. Everybody hates me. I can't stand more than five seconds worth of conversation with anyone. The only one I confide in is my brother's pet alien. Maybe I really do need help." Her monotone a bit more deadpan than usual. Lashes fluttered, unconscious lowering of eyes.

He stood up and gesticulated, then eventually calmed down enough for decipherable speech.

"No you do not need help. You are the most independent person I know. You do not allow others to control your life. If your species does not think of that as good thing, then the rest of this planet would fit better on Irk. Besides, you're brother would be in a deplorable state if not for you."

A snort of incredulity.

"Well, it's true. You do not need anyone else. _We _do not need anyone else, because we do not _have_ anyone else. Maybe the reason you confide in me so much is because we're alike- rejects, loners, different."

"And that's supposed to give me comfort? We're alike because we're both different? You're just a dreamer, Zim. And you were cast out for it. Me, I haven't even dared to dream. It's depressing."

"I have yet to master this _comforting_ practice. But I speak the truth. And I am not your brother's _pet_. I do not even know what that really means. I know people call Gir my pet dog, but I have never learned exactly what a _pet_ is-"

"It means a living thing that you keep. Most times an animal; and you're responsible for it- providing all of its needs and wants, comfort… everything."

The moon was not out, tonight; both getting lost in their thoughts.

"But isn't that what your people do? Take care of each other? A parent, a friend, and all else, that's what your whole notion of good is based on. Then you humans are each other's pets? If that is true, then shouldn't you be buying Dib a feeding bowl of some kind? And maybe a leash?"

An unfamiliar sound cut his ramblings short. It was so soft and so unheard of- he had to concentrate to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from exposure to water in the air.

There it was again. And now he knew what it was. Unconsciously, his face contorted from puzzled to content to smug and then settled at last in a look of benevolence.

At first, it was just a chuckle.

Then slowly, agonizingly, it grew and filled the air with soft gales of laughter. The tiny vapors scattering and dancing about as their idyll is interrupted by mirth.

"Thank you, Zim. I needed that. I still keep forgetting how little it is you know about the things we all take for granted. No, we aren't each other's pets. Nobody takes care of everybody like that anymore. At least, not in my life. Looks like the cats and dogs have it better than I do."

Horrified at how the girl's mood was shifting back onto the morose, he spoke the first thing than came to mind, unconsciously voicing a wish he had long been thinking about.

"Then, can you be my pet?"

The tiny drops of water frolicked in the air and silence.

"I said, can I keep you as my pet? Can I take care of you and such? Then you wouldn't be so sad, and I can guarantee you much better treatment than that the local small furry quadrupeds receive from their owners."

She looked almost torn as he kept staring at her, asking for something he didn't quite understand the implications of yet.

"Why are you so quiet? Is it that you do not wish to be my pet? If so, just say it, and I shan't bother you any longer."

"We are alike, aren't we?"

"Hmm?"

"I said, we are a lot alike, aren't we?"

"Yes. We are both beings who do not belong anywhere. We're aliens, Gaz. In the truest sense of the word."

"Do you know what it is you're asking? This is something than I'm quite sure you haven't prepared for."

"Yes I do. A friend should never leave another to suffer as you do. And I wish to make you happier, for we are kindred spirits. We, who are free, shall always live with the horrors that accompany liberty and a right to choose. We can not rely on anyone except one another. So that is why I mean to take care of you. I want to give you the opportunity to dream."

The sound of the still night brought a startling clarity to the offer.

"Zim?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, Gaz."

"Then ask me again."

In the silence and moonless night, the tiny dancing drops of pain filled the air. Somewhere else, lovers were kissing under the stars.

But right here, sitting on her ledge on the jungle gym, an exiled dreamer only stared at his friend and asked.

"Can I keep you?"

* * *

"It just wouldn't work, Zim." 

"Why not? We want it, and no one else should care."

"No one? What about me, huh?"

"I meant everyone else, Dib."

"It just wouldn't."

"Give me one good reason."

"One? Well how about that you're an extra-terrestrial? The fact that she's seventy-percent water? And you're allergic to it? Her saliva, her tears- everything, Zim."

"Well, that's just incidental."

"Do you think she would be able to live with that?"

"Well, I certainly can. We'll just be careful."

"Damn it, can you not be so self-centered for at least once in your life? We're not Irken. We are tactile beings- we express things in so many levels with just touch. We comfort with kisses and hugs. We're just different, Zim. We need proof, validation, love."

"We both want to be together, Dib."

"She's Gaz. She hasn't had the easiest life, and sometimes I think that she's learned that she doesn't deserve anything better. She punishes herself. You're a punishment, don't you get it? How can she ever be truly happy with a person who'll never be able to reciprocate? You care for her, I see that. But no matter what, Zim- you'll never be able to love her. It's nobody's fault. It's just the way things are. We'll never be the same- and that's why it'll never work."

"But- but I care for her!"

"Care, Zim. You can care for her until the armada comes- and I thank you for that, no one has ever done so with my sister, save for me. But caring will never be the same as loving. And that's what she needs. Someone to love. And someone to love her back."

"I just wanted to ask your advice, as a friend- instead, you give me a lecture on our differing biologies and some moronic psychoanalysis of your sister. Well, I don't give a damn, Dib."

"Yes, maybe you don't. But are you sure she doesn't?"

* * *

She looked happy. 

He watched from a distance as Gaz calmly took her diploma- a piece of paper that symbolized freedom and hardship.

How peculiar, humans and their rituals.

Around her, hundreds of other graduates happily received hugs from friends, family members, and loved ones. Sometimes, all three were the same person. The jungle gym glinted in the background.

Some of them deserved the happiness. Most didn't. But she, with all her melancholy, was probably the one who had fought for the achievement the most.

And because irony was the strongest force in the universe, she didn't even have a boyfriend. What she had was a handshake from her brother, a card from her father, and a scream from Gir.

Impassively, his blood-red jewel eyes focused on her darting eyes. Dancing and floating as they searched for any sign of him. He tried to muster a convincingly happy look for her, until he realized that she wouldn't be able to see him. Cameras, like time, only worked one way, after all.

After a while, she gave up and looked at her family, instead.

She looked happy.

At least, that's what Zim told himself.

* * *

"Why are you humans so unappreciative of your freedom?" 

"What?"

"I mean, you've never lived as I have- under a society where individual choices are anathema. We lived in absolutes. And our lives were decided even before we were hatched. Humans, however are exactly the opposite. You live with no boundaries, no enforced code of conduct. You are absolutely free."

"Well, not exactly- we do live by our own society's rules about proper and respectable behavior."

"But the fact is, you humans _can_ choose not to abide by those arbitrary regulations. And yet, you don't seem to realize how fortunate you people are. You subscribe to religion, to illusions of predetermination, to this… God."

"Well, I think it's because we humans are _too_ free. We _need_ an idea of a higher being, a higher purpose. A compromise between your authoritarianism and total freedom. Because if we stop trying to put some meaning into our lives, we might just see how useless and inane everything is."

"You people are just like that because you haven't experienced what life is if everyone only lived for a set purpose. You have yet to imagine the horrors of it."

"Maybe. But I guess… no one can really know for sure. I don't exactly believe in a religion, but I want to believe that what I am doing has meaning. Not just a hopeless series of events that accidentally take place and affect nothing at all while I'm on the path to my eventual death."

"That, as well. You people think of death so differently."

"Humans have expiry dates, Zim. Not like Irkens. I know that your people also die, but not naturally. You don't think of time the same way we do. Maybe that's why we humans want to cram so much relevance into our lives- because we know that we'll all eventually die, and the only comfort we may have is that we spent our time happily."

"But such a waste! I have studied your history. So many people wasting their lives on moronic ideals."

"The purpose of living your life is finding your reason for living, and never letting it go. Some call that purpose science, knowledge or whatever. Sometimes, people call it love or their soul mates. A popular one is God. Someone who'll watch over you and a guarantee that everything you've done and ever will do was some part of some master plan, and that you made a difference in your short time."

"So God is man's invention, then? Not as your religions say?"

"Yes, I guess. Don't you get it, Zim? We _need_ these things. These illusions and dreams. Because without them, what would be left?"

"Your life?"

"A life that isn't all it's cracked up to be. Because like it or not, life will always be crappy. Hell. And these things? Well, they give us free beings _hope._ They give us the courage to keep on living, because something good might just be around the corner."

"Hope?"

"Yes. Hope. That's who God is."

"Do you believe in this hope?"

"I need to."

* * *

He had been sitting on the park bench for a long time. 

She arrived around mid-afternoon, head lowered and movements curt.

He looked at her. She looked back.

He unceremoniously moved for her to sit beside him.

Something glinted in her gloved hand as she sat.

The autumn wind blew the leaves towards the jungle gym.

Eyes- two, hidden by contact lenses, what were left, by unshed tears- fell on the familiar structure.

"I can't keep doing this."

"I know."

"So why don't I stop torturing myself?"

"I don't know."

Brown and scarlet whirled all around.

"Why did I fall in love with you?"

"I don't know."

The children at play struck them both. Innocent sounds unmarred by distinguishable words.

"Why do I keep on hoping? I mean, I've tried to live a normal life, but I'm still in love with a green kid half my size."

"I don't have any answers. Not about this."

"Why don't you?"

"Because I just don't."

The dying sun wafted lilting fingertips of gold on them. A cold glint freezing the moment in time forever.

"Why can't you just love me back?"

"Because I don't know how. I've tried. You know that I care for you deeply. But I just can't do that. I'll never be the same as everybody else- no matter how I deny it. And in this, in the one thing I wish I were, I can't pretend."

"So there's no hope?"

"I'm sorry."

The unshed and the unsaid crept between them. Poisoning and liberating.

"Tell Dib to take care of Zak for me, okay? I haven't talked to him since the divorce, and the clinic had a no-phone-calls policy."

"I will."

"Can I try something?"

"Yes."

She leaned over and kissed him one last time.

His lips burned.

"I love you."

"I'm sorry."

"Can't you lie? Just for once?"

"I can't. Never to you."

The jungle gym groaned as its aged skeleton was assaulted by the young- each boy dreaming of themselves as superheroes; each girl dreaming of their wedding dress.

"I'm ready."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, I am."

"Will I ever see you again?"

"Maybe you will, dreamer. Maybe."

"How can I be sure?"

"You can't. You'll just have to trust me."

"I do."

A silver flash and a soft ripping sound. Brown and scarlet all around.

The wind blew the leaves towards the jungle gym.

"Good bye, Gaz."

"Thank you."

Lips curved into a smile.

The red stain on the ground spread amidst the fallen leaves. Dying yellow dreams.

"I'll miss you."

She closed her eyes.

Zak looked over from the jungle gym at his mother while she talked to her friend. He didn't know what was happening, but it seemed all right- his mother was smiling. His uncle Dib would be around later and he would be able find out what was up. But she seemed happy, though.

Zim closed his hands on hers, the soft hiss of his skin burning as her life stained his fingers.

He sat in that park bench for a long time.

* * *

"I could have been famous, you know." 

"If you'd exposed me, yes."

"But I didn't. I really wanted to, for a while."

"When you were a kid?"

"When _we_ were kids. And when Gaz died."

"Yes."

"Ironic, isn't it? My life was bent on telling the truth, but all I did was hide it. Her life had been lived only for herself, but she died in the name of love."

"You need to rest."

"I'll have plenty of rest in a few minutes. Don't worry."

"Dib?"

"Yes?"

"Why didn't you?"

"Didn't I what?"

"Expose me?"

"Because you're my friend. And my sister loved you."

"But why? I ruined both of your lives."

"Maybe. But we would never be able to tell what might have happened if you hadn't been there."

"But it would have been better."

"We'll never know for sure, in this life."

"In this life? So you finally believe in something else after all this?"

"Like I said. I _have _to."

"Yes. I know that now."

"Zim."

"Yes?"

"There's another reason."

"What?"

"Because we're alike. We're the same. Always have, and always will be. Just blind fools trying to live our lives."

"But I've brought so much misery and problems-"

"Shit happens. And shit will _always_ happen. In the end, the only choice you'll ever have is either to let all of it swamp you down or to keep trudging on after cleaning yourself up. Shit's God's way of reminding us to look in the mirror and use the toilet paper."

"So you finally believe in God?"

"I guess."

"I hope I get to meet him someday."

"You don't have to, Zim. That's faith. Believing in something you'll never see."

"Maybe we'll never be the same, then. Because I will never be able to believe in something I cannot observe."

"Faith- it's one of those things we'll never be able to comprehend. But in the end, we all realize everything turned out okay."

"Dib, you've been the best friend I've ever had."

"I know."

"Do you ever think that it's unfair that you're going away while I'll never change?"

"Dying from old age isn't so bad."

"Not from what I can see."

"Just trust me on this."

"Someday, I will… do you think I'll ever believe in this god?"

"Zim?"

"Yes?"

"You already do."

* * *

Gir exploded ninety-three years, seven months, and two days after he landed on earth. 

He had never been designed for operation for longer than thirty-three Earth years, but then again, he had never behaved exactly the way he should have.

Sometimes, Zim dreamt that his robot was still alive, epileptically making waffles and watching the television set longer than one would think imaginable.

Maybe Gir wasn't so dead, after all.

He missed him.

* * *

Outside, the sky was crying. 

Zim, the exiled dreamer, former Irken Invader looked back.

He was a reject, and would always be different. And sometimes he wished he could forget.

And then, he would remember everything that had happened- and the pain and the happiness would remind him.

Remind him of all that he had lost.

Of all that he had gained.

Of how much he had changed.

He missed them. Sometimes, it hurt too much to even watch a sunrise.

He'd never been the same, and never would be.

But in the end, he was what he chose to be.

Human.

Free.

The pitter-patter deaths of the droplets of pain surrounded him like the sound of children at play. And at last, Zim smiled.

Somewhere, lovers were promising each other the stars.

But here, on the threshold of his home, he chose.

Praying to a god he had never met and but had always believed in, he walked into the beautiful, glistening shards of heaven.

"_What's it like? Being free?"_

"_How does it feel, that in the end, you're just like me?"_

"_Do you believe in this hope?"_

"_I need to."_

"_Can I try something?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Because we're alike. We're the same. Always have, and always will be. Just blind fools trying to live our lives."_

"_Will I ever see you again?"_

"_Maybe you will, dreamer. Maybe."_

"_How can I be sure?"_

"_You can't. You'll just have to trust me."_

"_I do."_

"_Zim?"_

"_Are you sure about this?"_

"_Yes, Gaz."_

"_Then ask me again."_

"_Can I keep you?"_

Nobody answered for a long time.

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

_-_

_wakas

* * *

_

"_Once there was a way to get back home  
Sleep pretty darling do not cry  
And I will sing a lullaby"_

_-Paul McCartney

* * *

_

**Notes:** First, credit. The jungle gym scenes and kissing scenes were inspired and are credited to Raina1. The quote 'Can I keep you' is from Casper, The Movie. A line is from MBLite's story, Tag!

**Appendix: **

Zim is an alien sent from a faraway war-monger planet called Irk. In its empire, rank is based on height, and an Invader is an elite solider whose sole task is conquering other planets. Within the course of the show, we'll eventually find out that Zim is defective, and was sent to Earth not to conquer it, but to die. He was also issued a defectively manic robot, Gir- who dresses up as his pet dog. His base on Earth looks like a fake house. Zim is extremely allergic to all forms of meat and water- he burns when he comes in contact with either. He has an insane devotion to his Empire's cause, and consequently looks down on all 'lesser' beings. He never dignifies a human by addressing them by the name: he prefers to use derrogatives like worm-baby and the like.

Dib and Gaz Membrane are the neglected kids of the great scientist, Professor Membrane. In the not-so-distant future of Earth, in a small demented little town, both of their lives are interrupted by the arrival of a funny green kid at their elementary school. Dib soon finds out- because he is an obsessive paranormal aficionado- that the exchange student is in fact a disguised alien- with a wig to cover antennae and contact lenses for ruby eyes and all. A rivalry soon ensues. Gaz couldn't care less- the only things she's interested in are her skull necklace and her Video Game- Vampire Piggy Hunter on her handheld: the GameSlave. She is dark and brooding.

That's all. If you've got any other questions about the original story, just ask me.

If I have committed any mistakes in grammar or spelling, please leave a comment so that I may correct the error.

Reviews keep me warm at night.


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